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A 25 year old female orca called Kalina died at SeaWorld Orlando on Monday. Kalina is the fourth orca to die at SeaWorld parks this year – a shameful record that highlights the difficulty of keeping these remarkable animals in captivity.

Orca’s should not be kept in captivity, this majestic creature belong in the wild

This latest orca tragedy is within a month of the death of Sumar who was just 12 years old when he passed away. In June Taima and her still born calf added to the total of 155 orcas that have died in captivity.

Kalina was the first orca born in captivity. Her parents were captured from the wild. Her father Winston was captured in 1970 in the Penn Cove captures off Washington, made infamous because of their brutality which killed at least 4 orcas in the process. Kalina’s mother Katina was about 2 years old when she was captured from Icelandic waters.

Kalina was just 6years old when she was first impregnated despite orcas not maturing until their teens. She successfully gave birth to her first calf when she was 8 and went on to have 3 further calves in her short life.

She had been moved from Florida to Ohio to California to Texas and back to SeaWorld in Florida. She was separated from her mother and her children repeatedly without regard to the fact that orcas form very strong bonds with their family and spend their entire lives within their family group.

Kalina lived to just half the age that wild orcas are expected to live. Female orcas typically live until at least 50years in the wild and it is known that some live over 80years.

Kalina’s life highlights the high price that orca’s have to pay to entertain the public.

WDCS believes that orcas should no longer be kept in concrete tanks and facilities like SeaWorld should phase out their orca populations or retire their animals to seapens.

Orcas belong in the wild and not in captivity.

What can you do to help?

> Do not go to any attraction keeping captive whales or dolphins.

> Sign the petition calling for a ban in keeping whales and dolphins captive in Europe.